Virtual reality video systems desirably support 360 degrees of view to provide a panoramic view to users. Virtual reality systems allow users to freely control their viewing direction during video play-back. Such 360 degree video systems compute and display the viewing area based on the orientation of a display and user, and the field of view (FOV) that a user is likely able to see for any given viewing direction.
Current 360 degree video delivery techniques typically use the delivery scheme used for traditional video. Typically, the VR content provider encodes and sends VR content including visible portions and those portions that are not visible for the current viewing direction. Sending all of these encoded portions of the VR content requires high bandwidth and consumes more resources than are required for delivering the current visible portion of the view using traditional delivery schemes. The usage of such resources to support traditional delivery schemes creates network loading issues, adds to network latency and lowers network performance and can cause a poor viewing experience.